Angry Metal Guy

Raventale // Bringer of Heartsore
Rating: 3.5/5.0 —Moonsore–o
Label: BadMoodMan Records
Websites: myspace.com/raventale
Release Dates: Out now!

Ukrainian black metal? With doom and viking elements? By a one man band? Sounds good to me! While Steel Druhm must sheepishly admit to being late to the Raventale party, now that I’m here, I’m a happy fucking camper indeed. That’s because one Astaroth Merc has single-handedly spewed out a very entertaining and enjoyable platter of contemplative, brooding, atmospheric and doomy black metal on his fifth album, Bringer of Heartsore. So good is the material here, I’m willing to overlook that awful, AWFUL album title (plus, I’m assuming English is like his fifth language so mistakes will be made). So what will a listener be treated to on a Raventale album? A composite of Moonsorrow, Helrunar and SIG:AR:TYR (minus the folk acoustics). That means big, sweeping musical pieces, alternatively epic, melancholy and brutal. Sometimes hollow like a dark, empty void, other times ice-cold like Nordic winters, Astaroth weaves many a mood over this relatively short but sweet blackened sojourn. I find myself impressed enough to begin immediate excavation of their back catalog for more rich doomy, blackened goodness. To decide if you might feel the same, read all the fine words below, in order. Continue reading

2010. Wow, man. 2010. We’re counting months now until we all die in 2012. So how do you think it’s going to happen? Do you think that terrorists will get a nuke and fuck up the world? Or do you think that a meteor will hit? Or should I wait until the end of 2011 to ask that question?

Well, either way, now that I’ve given your children nightmares that they will never get over, I’d like to say THANKS. Thanks to everyone for reading this blog of mine (and Steel Druhm’s—who gets a special thanks for writing for this blog of mine). Thanks for responding to posts, for donating to the website to help keep it afloat and thanks for your patience when I can be a little bit inconsistent due to having a life and not doing this for a living (and thanks to Mr. Steel Druhm especially, but also Lord Doom and the others who have helped pick up the slack). It’s really cool that you do that. That you get an RSS feed of reviews that we write. That you debate and that you feel as passionately about metal as we do even if we don’t all agree. That’s awesome.

Also, a big WTF to Southern Lord and Profound Lore for not sending me promos despite repeated requests. What’s an Angry Metal Guy gotta do to get some love from y’all? I’m not going to download your shit illegally to review it, but I’d like to review it! So send me promo already for fuck’s sake!

Lastly, I want to say a word first about the fact that 2010 saw the loss of two of my personal heroes: Ronnie James Dio and Peter Steele. Let’s not forget both of these metal icons who gave in their own very unique ways to the fabric of the thing that we all love. Metal will definitely not be the same with them gone.

In honor of 2010 being a pretty good year (aside from the untimely deaths), I’ve got to present my top 10. And more importantly I have to declare the Record o’ the Year! Continue reading

Ihsahn // After
Rating: 3.5/5.0 — Very good, but not as compelling as angL
Label: Candlelight
Websites: ihsahn.com | myspace.com/ihsahnmusic
Release Dates: EU 25.01.2010 | US: 01.26.2010

Easily one of the most anticipated records of 2010 for me has been Ihsahn‘s new offering. While I was a passing Emperor fan, really just a fan of In the Nightside Eclipse and Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk-era, I was taken by Ihsahn‘s solo stuff. The Adversary felt fresh—progressive enough, a step away from the later Emperor material of which I wasn’t a fan—and it captured the sonic styles and textures that he was never quite allowed to explore while in Emperor. The record didn’t stick with me as I had hoped, while I listened to it occasionally it didn’t hold a steadfast position in my discography. On the other hand, angL blew me away. Probably the finest record of 2008, angL has maintained a steady place in the rotation and is a record that I’ve showed to dozens of people. Perfectly produced, perfectly composed and smartly written, angL contained everything that I wanted out of a new progressive metal record. So, of course, when I heard that Ihsahn would be releasing a new record in 2010, I became justifiably excited.

After, the third album in Ihsahn‘s initial trilogy, has once again separated itself from the pack and from Ihsahn‘s earlier work—something that the man seems compelled to do with every release. The first album composed primarily for his new 8 string guitars, After possesses a more organic sound than the earlier two albums. While the style hasn’t changed dramatically—if you’ve heard the first two albums, you certainly would recognize it as Ihsahn—the composition feels less tightly contained and controlled. The addition of saxophone to certain tracks also offers a more natural dimension to the music, similar to that of the excellent Solefald, and the saxophone is also relatively unconstrained, unpredictable and has the sound of being highly improvised.

That Ihsahn is a fantastic writer is undisputed, but how well this record plays with you probably depends on your personal tastes. The first half of After plays very similarly to his earlier material; black metal influenced progressive metal with excellent riffing, smart transitions and some acoustic parts. This culminates with track “Frozen Lakes on Mars,” which might be the best on the album, before continuing into the second part of the album. The track “Undercurrent” marks the halfway point (trackwise, as it’s track 5) and where this album started to transform to a slower, more progressive album. The riffing and writing loses some of its crispness on the second half of this album—particularly on “Undercurrent” and “Austere” which are both quite slow—and, instead relies on atmosphere, texture and feel. By the time one makes it to “Heaven’s Black Shore,” after the 16 minutes of down time, the record seems to have lost a little bit of its punch. The last two tracks are great, though again a little bit more plodding than the earlier material and the whole album comes to a major epic close that is worth the wait.  How this will play definitely depends on what you like about the earlier Ihsahn material, I think. If you’re a fan of more atmospheric black metal, bands like Shining, Solefald, or even something like Wardruna (or from a totally different angle, if you’re a big fan of 70s prog and neo-prog like Opeth, Porcupine Tree, etc.) you’ll probably appreciate these things musically. If you’re more of a fan of the technical, fast, groovy, structured Ihsahn stuff—well, then this might take some time to grow on you if it ever grows at all.

There is always a danger in re-inventing your sound, and while this record is good, it just doesn’t live up to standard of what I was expecting after angL. That said, I would still recommend this album to others because it’s still heads and shoulders above a lot of the stuff that’s being released today. The musical performances are amazing: the rhythm section (Asgeir Mickelson & Lars Noberg from Spiral Architect) is tight and tremendously talented. The saxophonist (from the Norwegian Shining) offers a stellar performance and production and mix is also tight, clean and clear without feeling sterile. Musically, the record is still epic and compelling for the most part and it shows just how multi-dimensional Ihsahn is as a writer and performer. The question for fans is, of course, what comes after After?

We’ll start with a simple link.  The new track from Ihsahn‘s forthcoming record After, which is the thing I’m looking forward to most in 2010 (along with the new Vintersorg).

The song is GREAT.  The production and mix is really solid, and the song itself is delightfully progressive. I can easily say that Ihsahn is the best solo project by any musician pretty much ever.

Ihsahn has posted a new video entry from the recording process online.  While very, very boring from the perspective of these kinds of videos (it doesn’t lie when it says “WARNING: This video contains no enthusiasm or excitement of any kind”) it is, on the other hand, awesome to watch him play and great to hear where After is headed musically.  That is, it sounds fucking awesome and I’m super stoked about it.

As reported earlier, this record is scheduled to be released in January of 2010, making the new year look very exciting from my perspective.

OK, according to a clarification that I got from Candlelight, Ihsahn‘s new record isn’t coming until January of 2010.  Lame. I was really excited about the October 2009 date, but apparently the Candlelight got it wrong on their website (which I checked and which said (and still says), and I quote:

Ihsahn - After
CANDLE288CD
19/10/2009

Progressive Metal

So yeah, don’t blame me.  I was just reporting what they had written.  Anyway, now October is less fun.

October is going to be a very good month!  Why is that?  Because not only do we get a new record from Hypocrisy as already mentioned but Ihsahn, the very excellent ex-front man from black metal legends Emperor (as if you didn’t know that) is going to be releasing his own new record!  Color me fucking stoked!  I hadn’t expected that at all!  Anyway, let’s hope it lives up to angL, which was easily my favorite album from 2008.  Now if only Candlelight would add me to their promo list so that I can get a copy and do an interview with the genius himself!! Mark down October 19th on your calenders, I know I will.

Check the link here.

Also, check out that new fucking 8 string.  Too cool. \m/